Does Size Impact Attention and Recall of Graphic Health Warnings?
Elizabeth G Klein1, Abigail B Shoben2, Sarah Krygowski1
1Division of Health Behavior & Health Promotion, The Ohio State University College of Public Health, Columbus, OH.
Objective:
To evaluate the attention paid to larger sizes of graphic health warnings (GHWs) embedded within cigarette advertisements so as to assess their impacts on rural smokers.
Methods:
Daily smokers (N = 298) were randomly assigned to view a cigarette advertisement with 3 conditions: 2 intervention conditions with GHW comprising 20% or 33% of the ad area, or a text-only control. Eye-tracking software measured attention in milliseconds. Binary outcome mediation was conducted.
Results:
Intervention participants spent 24% of their time viewing the GHWs, compared to 10% for control (p < .01). The odds of GHW recall in the combined (20% and 33%) intervention group were 3.3 times higher than controls. Total dwell time mediated 33% of the effect of the graphic condition on any recall.
Conclusions:
GHWs in 20% of cigarette advertisement space attracted significantly more attention than text-only warnings; larger GHWs did not increase attention. Attention was significantly associated with warning recall; total time viewing mediated warning recall. Tobacco ads should include GHWs to attract the attention of smokers.
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